How would you design a memorable brand for Holocaust remembrance or multinational peacekeeping? That job falls to Matias Delfino, an Argentina-born resident of Queens who works in the graphic-design unit at the United Nations.

In a WSJ profile Monday, the designer talks about the inherent difficulties of trying to convey a single message to the world without stumbling into cross-cultural misunderstandings or inadvertently causing offense. Below, he discusses his approach to five of the 150 branding campaigns he has developed while working at the U.N.

United Nations / Matias Delfino

Matias helped create the poster above for International Peace Day in 2011. As he explained:

The inspiration for the poster was to show how people — especially the youth — express their views in a pacifist way, using the new language brought by the social media tool. These new tools have helped spread the word for peace and democracy, and continue to influence the international community, by making people’s voice heard from all over the world.

United Nations / Matias Delfino

The poster above, designed by Matias for an international day commemorating the Holocaust, won an award from Graphic Design USA magazine in 2006. Here was his approach:

The inspiration for the design was to merge a symbol of atrocity and one of hope. The transformation from barbed wired to intertwined roses depicts a commitment to the future and conveys a message of remembrance.

United Nations / Matias Delfino

Above, a poster advertising a U.N. tribute concert to peacekeeping which also garnered an award, this time from design journal Graphis in 2010.

In the context of a tribute concert, the inspiration for this illustration was to merge in a very simple but yet direct way, music (guitar) with the peacekeeping forces (blue helmet).

United Nations / Matias Delfino

Some concepts are more challenging then others, Matias says, such as when he was called on to illustrate “sustainable development” for the 2012 Rio+20 Conference. His task was to “simplify and visualize complexity,” he says. He explains the result, shown above:

The logo shows the three pillars of Sustainable Development — social equity, economic growth and environmental protection — connected in a circular shape representing the globe. The three colors blend into each other, indicating the interconnectedness of the different components

United Nations / Matias Delfino

For a poster celebrating the International Year of the Forests, Matias had to convey the idea that forests are vital to the survival of the human race and that people have a central role in their protection and developing them:

The iconographic elements in the design depict some of the multiple values of forests and the need for a 360‐degree perspective: forests provide shelter to people and habitat to biodiversity; are a source of food, medicine and clean water; and play a vital role in maintaining a stable global climate and environment.

Despite the challenge of designing for a global audience, Matias said he takes pride in the fact that his messages are seen across the U.N.’s’ 193 member states. “When you are in communication, the best thing that can happen to you is that your message is going to be spread,” he says. “It makes me feel it’s worth it somehow, doing something to change reality for good.”